Is homosexuality a sin? More people, including in Tuscaloosa, say no

Saturday

Mar 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM

TUSCALOOSA | As the battle for same-sex marriage rights continues in the U.S. Supreme Court, the court of U.S. public opinion is debating another issue involving homosexuality: Is homosexuality a sin? According to a recent survey by LifeWay Research, most Americans now believe that it isn't.

By Jamon SmithStaff Writer

TUSCALOOSA | As the battle for same-sex marriage rights continues in the U.S. Supreme Court, the court of U.S. public opinion is debating another issue involving homosexuality: Is homosexuality a sin?According to a recent survey by LifeWay Research, most Americans now believe that it isn't.In September 2011, 44 percent of Americans said it was a sin, 43 percent said it wasn't and 13 percent said they didn't know, according to the survey.But when the survey was conducted again in November 2012, barely more than a year later, public opinion on the matter shifted.The percentage of Americans who believed that homosexuality was a sin dropped from 44 percent to 37 percent, while the percentage of people who said it's not a sin increased to 45 percent. The percentage of people who said they don't know if it's a sin increased to 17 percent.Mirroring public opinion across the nation, Tuscaloosa residents are split on the subject.“It's a sin,” said Freddie Robinson, 53, a Tuscaloosa resident and a Baptist. “It's in the Bible. It's written in stone. America is trying to become Sodom and Gomorrah.” Molly Lusian, 40, a Tuscaloosa resident and an Episcopalian, said homosexuality is not a sin because it's genetic.“At this point science has completely and totally proven that homosexuality isn't a choice that someone makes,” Lusian said. “It's a genetic predisposition. People are either genetically predisposed to it or not. If you don't have a choice in the behavior, it can't be a sin, no more than people having blue eyes is a sin.“I think one of the most offensive parts of the argument is that people say Christians believe X. There's 30-plus Christian denominations. The Episcopal Church since 1976 has declared that homosexuals were children of God.”Tamar Wilson, a 28-year-old Tuscaloosa resident and a Full Gospel Baptist, said homosexuality is still a sin because it's always been a sin. She said people can't choose what is and isn't sin; that's for God to decide, and he's already made his decision, which is written in the Bible.“Any sin that was stated as a sin in the Bible is still a sin today,” Wilson said. “That list has not changed. People probably feel that it's no longer a sin because it's tolerated more.“I don't have a problem with that, because Scripture says (in Jeremiah 31:3) ‘with love and kindness have I drawn thee.' So a lot of people within the church feel that if I push homosexuals away, they'll turn from the church, but if I accept them for who they are, they'll possibly be set free.”David DuPuy, a 34-year-old atheist and Tuscaloosa resident, said he doesn't believe in the concept of sin. But if sin were real, based on religion, homosexuality would be a sin, he said.“Being that I am an atheist and therefore not religious, whether or not it's a sin doesn't affect me, but from my religious background — I grew up Methodist — it is a sin,” DuPuy said. “It's kind of a non-issue, but from my religious studies, I'd say it is a sin.”Noah Cannon, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Alabama majoring in telecommunications, is president of Spectrum, the university's LGBTQA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer and Allied/Asexual) student organization. He said he grew up Presbyterian but no longer claims a religion.He identifies his sexual orientation only as, in his words, “queer,” a former derogatory word against homosexuals that many younger people in the LGBTQA+ community have started calling themselves in recent years in an attempt to turn the word from a negative into a positive, and as a catch-all phrase describing LGBTQA+ people as a group.Cannon didn't answer the question because he said he doesn't believe in sin.“I am a proponent of LGBT rights, and I think those numbers are indicative of a large social movement in this country of people accepting LGBT,” he said. “Within the past year, there's been a lot of prominent public figures, most notably President (Barack) Obama and Vice President (Joe) Biden, who've accepted same-sex relationships. I think that the more that people become aware of LGBT struggles, the more they're going to be emphatic towards them.”Many people feel that the shift in public opinion on whether homosexual marriage is a sin has happened because of how the media and celebrities have embraced it in the past few years.Chris Latham, a 39-year-old Tuscaloosa resident and a Presbyterian who said he believes homosexuality isn't a sin, said America's exposure to homosexuality in the media and the emergence of it in people's families and friend groups have caused people to view it in a different light.“I was taught it was wrong in church, but when I grew up and had some friendships with gay people, I realized that they lived very fulfilling lives, and they lived better lives and were better people than a lot of Christians,” Latham said.“I think it comes down to how much attention it's receiving,” he said. “How much it's in the media. I think a lot of the ignorance is being erased. Usually with most hatred and prejudices, the more you learn the more understanding is out there.”Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, said he believes that Obama's change on his position concerning same-sex marriage had an impact on how most Americans view homosexuality and somewhat explains the shift in opinion that has occurred in the past year.“The president's evolution on homosexuality probably impacted the evolution of cultural values — there is a real and substantive shift, surprisingly large for a one-year time frame — though this was hardly a normal year on this issue,” Stetzer said.Homosexuality is a sin, said the Rev. Willie Clyde Jones, pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church. That's a determination that has been put forth in the Bible, he said.“The Bible says because of our sins our sons and daughters will turn from natural sex acts,” Jones said. “But I believe there's forgiveness and I don't believe in mistreating them. The Bible says it's a sin, but we still have to love them and they can be healed from that sin.”Like many other people, Jones believes that most Americans believe that it's not a sin anymore because of statements of support from prominent public figures like Obama, and more recently, former President Bill Clinton.He said the change of public opinion on the subject doesn't bode well for the country's future.“I think that when your president and even Bill Clinton are trying to retract statements they said about it, people are yielding to it because there's so much pressure,” Jones said. “No, I don't believe in gay marriage and personally I believe that America is on a collision course to self-destruction because we're doing the same thing that the Roman government did way back. The gist is, we're going to self-destruct because we're now giving in on everything, especially for those of us who believe in religions that follow Jesus' teachings.”The Rev. David Meginniss, rector of Christ Episcopal Church — a denomination that ordains homosexual clergy and in some places blesses homosexual unions and marriages — said he's not quite so sure about what the culture shift means for the country and for the Christian church.“I think the Bible is pretty clear that traditionally homosexuality has been a sin,” Meginniss said. “But I think there are other things in the Bible that have traditionally been declared a sin that God's people have determined are no longer sinful.“For example, I think there were certain rules about what people could eat, wear and who people could associate with that we, as modern people of God, feel was only applicable to a certain people, time and place.”Meginniss said he believes that now is the time for God's people to go into discernment — seeking answers from God — about homosexuality.He said he doesn't believe that whether homosexuality is or isn't a sin can be determined by the popular vote of the country's citizens or what people are now comfortable with. He said what will determine if it's a sin or not will be what God reveals to Christians through discernment.Meginniss said the time for the church to decide where it stands on homosexuality is now because the subject is out in the open and at the forefront of American culture. It's not a closeted issue anymore. “As more people come to see committed homosexual relationships and come to see that scientific evidence points that homosexual attraction is not a choice, more people are willing to believe that homosexuality in all cases isn't sinful,” he said. “What the Bible forbids is certain types of homosexual relationships.“I don't think that lifelong, committed, loving homosexual relationships existed when the Bible was being written, at least not openly enough for people to be conscious of them,” he said. “As one of our Supreme Court justices said this week, ‘it's newer than cellphones.' I don't know where we will wind up on this as a church — the Christian church in general. It seems to me that we need to listen to God's voice and follow his guidance, and be careful not to cast the first stone. It's a complex issue, I don't think it's black and white.”Bishop Earnest Palmer, pastor of Cornerstone Full Gospel Baptist Church, said that God's Word is not confused about what is and isn't sin. He said the Bible is clear about homosexuality.“Yes, homosexuality is a sin,” Palmer said. “I say that because the only book I can go by that determines sin and non-sin is the Bible. It explicitly addresses that. It doesn't condemn the person, it condemns the behavior.”Palmer said he's not so sure that the majority of Americans now believe that homosexuality isn't a sin. He said he believes that many Christians who believe homosexuality is a sin have chosen not to voice their belief on it. He also believes that most Americans are not open to homosexuality, they've just become more accepting of it.“The wave of acceptance is what's changed,” he said. “When it comes to a matter of faith, if you persist in saying that homosexuality needs to get status, our conversation is over. People try to equate racial integration with homosexual rejection. Those two things are not the same. I can't change my race, but I can change my inclination between lesbianism and any other form of sexuality.”Muhammad Sharif, president of the Islamic Center of Tuscaloosa, said the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is also very clear on the subject.“In the Islamic religion, sex outside of marriage, any type, is totally prohibited and it's a great sin,” Sharif said. “Any sex with a woman, or a man, or a goat for that matter, is a sin. It's clearly defined in our scripture and there's no ambiguity in it. That says it all.”Rabbi Stevens Jacobs, rabbi of Temple Emanu-El and professor of Judaic studies at UA, said that according to historical Jewish tradition, there's no question that homosexuality is considered to be sinful behavior. But Jacobs said he was ordained as part of the more liberal Jewish denomination, Reform Judaism, which is more accepting of homosexuality.“If you want to side with history, the answer is yes, it's a sin,” Jacobs said. “If you want to side with a more liberal interpretation, then no it's not. Our denomination is more affirmative of individual choice. This is an on-going issue in the religious community. We're all waiting and curious to see where the Supreme Court is going with this.”The Rev. Charlie Durham, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Tuscaloosa, declined to answer whether homosexuality is a sin. He said the subject is too complex to summarize and that the Presbyterian denomination is wrestling with the issue as well as the greater question of what it means to be a faithful Christian.He did say, however, why he thinks most Americans no longer see homosexuality as a sin. “Basically what's happened is people are coming out and family members are in same-sex relationships,” Durham said. “You have a lot more television and it's on the news all the time and all of a sudden that which was in the dark all the time is now in the light.“Younger people are in classes and clubs with same-sex people so it's familiarity,” he said. “So we're seeing a rapid culture shift. States, political parties, everybody's kind of going with it. So that's what makes it challenging for the churches. We have a Constitution for the U.S., but Christians have a Constitution and it's the Bible. As citizens we have to go by the Constitution of the U.S., but as Christians we have to go by the Bible.”